FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
is sometimes surprising, always so if the ground is peaty 
and you have light clothes. When I got the length of 
the stony beach and became too evident, the ducks cleared 
off. Then I waved my legs from behind a stone, and 
with the corner of my eye saw them swimming nearer. 
Again I wriggled ten yards nearer, with my heart 
pumping as if there was a Royal within fifty yards, and 
waved my legs from behind another stone. The ducks 
had gone a long way off this time, but the queer fish on 
the beach was altogether too new and interesting, and 
they slowly sailed back to between thirty-five or forty 
yards. Then I jumped up and ran in ten yards or so, and 
let drive right and left as they rose, and brought down five. 
Bruce had agreed to go in for any I might kill, as I had 
risked my life for Science the day before. I did not envy 
him stumbling over the stony bottom waist deep in the 
cold water, with showers of sleet making dressing un- 
comfortable. We got four of the five ; the fifth drifted 
out of reach. They were huge ducks, in first-rate con- 
dition for eating, and made splendid scouse, — so the crew 
said afterwards. 
There is such a quantity of fish, wild-fowl, and rabbits 
about these islands that all a man needs to live well is a 
boat, a net, and a gun ; but a mere punt costs £1$, and 
a seine net that would cost 30s. at home would cost 
£4 or £$ here. With a good seine or trammel one could 
catch a ton of fish in the two tides in front of Stanley ; 
and in the season the wild geese are very plentiful and 
even more tame than the Governor's goose. 
The people are so dependent on the Company and they 
